May 13, 2011

The primary damage ... appears to be limited to nicks and chips at the corners of Kasota Stone piers on the ground and first floors. ... These sharp corners of soft stone are vulnerable to damage from items such as handbags ... Carts and wheelchairs also contribute to these chips. ...

Then immediately following:

Essentially the building experienced 3-5 years of wear within a two week period of late February and early March, 2011.

Rest assured Journal Communications, Inc.'s marquee personalities will seize on the latter claim.* But there's no support for it throughout the rest of the report and in fact the report's own admission that "primary damage appears limited to nicks and chips on the ground and first floors" completely belies its "3-5 years of wear" claim.

How many years of wear, for example, did the building's roof endure?

And let's hope folks remember why the building was filled to capacity.

So basically...my understanding after reading the document is that there's wear and tear that can't be specifically attributed to the protests...some of which could go back to other restoration attempts made decades ago and some of which could have been made by visitors before or after the protestors.

In other words, if you start from the presupposition that all protestors against Governor Walker are dirty hippies and students, clearly it's all their fault.

Something like that. I wonder how much less the cost estimate would have been had it been undertaken on February 10, the day before Walker announced he was going to bust up the unions. Probably not all that much less.

Here's another question. Why is current access to the capitol building still not equivalent to the access of January 2011, as was required by court order? Seems like its time for another motion for contempt.

The Dept. of Admin. would argue (and likely has and is already) that access as of January was lenient by the standards it was empowered to enforce then. In other words, they say they could have been doing what they're doing now back in January.